In the field of credit card handling apparatus, a credit card issuer may have a single card that is adaptable for a plurality of financial transactions. A credit card issuer may also have a plurality of cards that are adaptable for different types of business transactions. The credit card may be used to extend credit to the customer or it may be used to draw money from a bank account on line so as to settle accounts which involve the purchase of goods or like transactions.
In an article purchase transaction by means of a point of sale (POS) system, an account is settled with the use of a credit card on which information regarding a customer is magnetically recorded. A magnetic stripe has previously been applied on the card by the issuer of the credit card. In the case of a credit card conforming to the ISO standard, the magnetic stripe consists of a maximum of three tracks and the card number is recorded in the second track (hereinafter referred to as track 2). Conventionally, it has been practiced that even if a different kind of card is used, the account can be settled with the use of a credit card based on the card number which is read out from track 2.
However, recently in certain European countries there is a tendency to use a credit card of the type in which important data such as the account number and the like are recorded in a track other than track 2, and charges involved are drawn on line from the bank account upon the settlement of the transaction. A credit card, as mentioned above, is designed so that unless the important data such as the account number or the like is read out, the account cannot be settled. Hereinafter, the track in which the important data is recorded is referred to as a track to be indispensably read (or an indispensably read track). In this regard, the information or data in track 2 is absolutely necessary or required for completing the transaction. However, credit card issuers can optionally select a track in which the important data is to be recorded, depending on the kind of the card. Under such circumstances, it is seen that an indispensably read track cannot be fixed and there is the possibility that some kinds of cards (variations of the VISA cards) issued from the same card issuer frequently cannot be processed by the same card handling apparatus. Under these circumstances, as mentioned above, such a problem arises that it sometimes occurs that in spite of those VISA cards which look the same as each other at a glance, one card can be handled by a card handling apparatus and another card cannot be handled by such apparatus. This situation arouses distrusts of credit card holders and causes confusion among the holders.
In addition, a system may be arranged in which all the data or information are read out from all of the tracks and sent out to a host computer regardless of the presence or absence of an indispensably read track. When the data are processed by the host computer a problem may exist that the data are too much to be handled by the host computer at one time, so that the data must be divided and sent out several times.
Representative documentation in the field of credit card handling apparatus includes U.S. Pat. No. 4,562,340, issued to K. Tateisi et al. on Dec. 31, 1985, which discloses a terminal device for making payments for credit transactions and comprising a card reader for reading data from either a credit card or a bank card.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,700,055, issued to A. Kashkashian on Oct. 13, 1987, discloses a multiple credit card microprocessor-based system which accepts the credit card, determines whether the credit card account selected for use by the card owner is valid, and prints a credit card invoice.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,780,602, issued to S. Kawana et al. on Oct. 25, 1988, discloses an IC card including means for determining whether data is correctly written in the memory area of the designated address.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,782,217, issued to H. R. Soza et al. on Nov. 1, 1988, discloses a financial transaction terminal and card reader system for reading data contained in magnetic stripes on a credit or a debit card.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,866,545, issued to R. J. LaManna et al. on Sept. 12, 1989, discloses a credit card embossing and recording system that verifies the accuracy of recording encoded data on one or more tracks of a recording medium by comparison of the recorded data with source data.